Bridge studies in behavior analysis: Evolution and challenges in JABA.

Abstract

The evolution of bridge studies in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis has led to fundamental changes in the types of studies published and the methods used to analyze behavior. This evolution has led to a substantial increase in our understanding of response-reinforcer relations with socially meaningful behavior and has served as a base for the development of novel treatment models. Concerns regarding the over-representation of participants with developmental disabilities and the social validity of these studies are briefly discussed along with some future directions for research. ********** One of the strengths of behavior analysis is the explicit link that exists between basic and applied research. As several authors have noted (Fisher & Mazur, 1997; Hake, 1982; Mace, 1994; Mace & Wacker, 1994; Wacker, 1996), this link between the basic and applied aspects of behavior analysis offers a rather unique and exciting possibility for reciprocity of research conducted by applied and basic researchers. For example, Wacker (2000) described how researchers who seek to apply basic processes to socially relevant behavior can both extend the generalizability of those processes and identify difficulties with the applications. Researchers conducting basic research can then conduct further investigations on the specific behavioral mechanisms of interest and, perhaps, show why the difficulty in application occurred. Although the link between applied and basic research in behavior analysis has always been present, the goal of strengthening links between basic and applied research and the development of an integrated science of human behavior have proven to be challenging to achieve. In this article, I describe why the continued evolution of studies that bridge basic and applied research is critically important to our science, some examples showing that this evolution is occurring, and some outcomes of this evolution in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA). Bridge Studies as the Cornerstone for Applied Behavior Analysis The links between basic and applied research are studies that directly show how basic mechanisms can be applied in socially relevant contexts. Hake (1982) labeled these as bridge studies because they bridge information on the basic mechanisms that underlie responding to the applications of those mechanisms. Thus, Hake conceptualized behavior analysis as existing along a continuum, with basic and applied research residing on either end of the continuum. Rather than viewing behavior analysis as having two distinct components (basic and applied), Hake suggested that all behavioral analysis research exists along one continuum and therefore all such research is linked as a single, internally integrated science. As discussed by Mace (1994), the continuum that connects applied and basic research in behavior analysis offers the possibility that the evolution of our science will occur via the reciprocal interaction between basic and applied research. For applied researchers and practitioners, the most direct benefit of this bridge is the development of novel treatments. For example, basic research on choice responding has had many successful applications, such as the development of more effective preference assessments (Fisher et al., 1992). Of equal importance, the initial applications led to programmatic lines of research on various dimensions of choice responding, such as studies evaluating how to bias the responding of adolescents on academic tasks (Neef, Mace, Shea, & Shade, 1992) and of preschoolers' instruction-following behavior (Harding et al., 1999; Peck et al., 1996). These applied studies of basic mechanisms underlying choice responding occurred because of the original bridge studies of Fisher et al. (1992) and Neef and her colleagues (Neef et al., 1992; Neef, Mace, & Shade, 1993; Neef, Shade, & Miller, 1994). This progression of research on choice responding, from basic analysis to applications with socially meaningful behavior, shows the importance of bridge studies. …